While straight females and lesbians perform better than straight guys, homosexual males do not. This pattern suggests that gay guys do not have a female academic profile. Gay teens tend to be worse students in general for some reason. Lesbians, by contrast, are similar to their straight counterparts on both math and English.

6 comments:

Is it possible to get the variance on these numbers? My guess is that the lower average is coming from a smaller right tail of academic super achievers. A lot of males who are intelligent, but socially ackward try really hard in school because they no it's their route to getting a decent woman. Gay guys don't have to worry about this.

This is what I expected. A gay kid in high school has a lot to think about other than grades. He is still different, still knows he is different, and like the average young person, surely isn't happy about being different.

Grades in most high schools these days are more an indicator of things like handing in classwork and homework than they are measure of performance on things like tests. Teachers in English are especially subjective.

Thus, can you find a test of some sort that measure verbal skills?

To Underachiever--

Some bright gay kids get really involved in activities like student government. It seems to act as a surrogate for dating and an alternative to other activities like sports. These kids are visible, perhaps giving a false impression of the average gay kid.

Gays are worse students on average because they have opted out of normal mating competition.

Ordinary young male students study hard because they want to gain social (academic) status to impress girls (if they're non-academically-oriented, young men impress girls with violence).

Young homosexuals don't care about impressing girls, and can only impress other homosexuals with their looks (or maybe their promiscuity)-- around the bathhouse or in the bushes at the local "fag park" no one cares about young homosexuals' status in school/society. (Older homosexuals often substitute money for looks, which you might think would encourage young ones to study hard, but they almost never think that far ahead.)

Timid young homosexuals, who are still inhibited from finding sexual partners by feelings of shame (I've known some) are sometimes poor students because they spend all their time dithering and moping instead of studying.

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"The creation myth was the essential bond that held the tribe together. It provided its believers with a unique identity, commanded their fidelity, strengthened order, vouchsafed law, encouraged valor and sacrifice, and offered meaning to the cycles of life and death. No tribe could survive long without the meaning of its existence defined by a creation story. The option was to weaken, dissolve, and die." ~ E.O. Wilson